My neighbors are unhappy to learn that the trash theyve carefully sorted for years into brown bottles, green bottles, cans, and paper is being dumped back into one pile at the local landfill. Except for aluminum cans, no one wants the sorted trash items. Is this bad for the environment?

Probably not. I checked with Dr. Daniel Benjamin of Clemson University (and the PERC Center for Free Market Environmentalism) and he says: First, dont worry that the trash going into our landfills will take over too much of the land area. People today are actually throwing away less trash (in both volume and tonnage) than in previous, less-affluent generations. Dr. Benjamin says the average U.S. household today generates one-third less trash than the average family in Mexico!

How can this be?

In significant part, its because we throw away less food, thanks to commercial processing and packaging.

When chickens, for example, are commercially processed, the beaks, claws, and innards are turned into pet food instead of going into the kitchen garbage can. Commercial processing and packaging of 1,000 chickens adds about 17 pounds of paper and plastic wrapbut turns (recycles) about 2,000 pounds of chicken by-products into useful purposes. Ditto for such things as the peelings from frozen French fries and the rinds from making orange juice. (The factory potato and citrus peels go to feed livestock.)

Millions of additional tons of organic waste go down the garbage disposals and so on to waste treatment plants, instead of drawing flies at the landfill.

Companies have also turned to lighter-weight packages (mainly to cut transport costs) and the total weight of the packages entering landfills, says Dr. Benjamin, has fallen by 40 percent. Plastic two-liter soft drink bottles weigh 30 percent less than the old glass bottles. Plastic bags weight 70 percent less than paper. Even aluminum beverage cans now weigh 40 percent less.

Thirty years ago we were told that we were running out of landfill space. New York City wasnt able to dump its garbage at sea any more, and it got piled up on Staten Island. What happened?

A new rule on ocean dumping and a temporary shortage of landfills with permits basically caused a bottleneck. New York initially started exporting its trash by rail. (Some if it came to Virginia, where we had lots of rural gullies to fill, and were very cheerful about the dumping fees.)

Today, the United States has 25 percent more landfill space permitted than we had 25 years ago. And all the trash were expected to dump in the next 100 years would fit into a landfill about 10 miles square.

There are no plans for one centralized national dump, of course, because its more advantageous for most communities to save the transportation costs, and turn their completed landfills into parks and tennis courts within their own borders.

What about pollution leaking from the landfills? The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), never likely to minimize a pollution risk, says leakage from modern Americas landfills can be expected to cause one cancer-related death over the next 50 years. In other words, the danger is too low to be measured. Todays landfills are sited away from groundwater sources; built on a foundation of several feet of dense clay; the foundation is covered with thick plastic liners, and the liners are then covered with several feet of sand or gravel. Any leachate is drained out via collection pipes and sent to the municipal wastewater treatment plants.

Wont we be losing irreplaceable resources if we landfill instead of recycling? Too often, recycling proponents focused on the aluminum or newspaper being recycled, and forgot about the fuel, manpower and other resources it took to turn the trash into something useful. And with new technology, resources such as copper and wood have declined in value.

Franklin Associates, which consults for EPA, says extensive recycling is 35 percent more expensive than conventional disposal, and curbside recycling is 55 percent more expensive. In other words, recycling takes more resources than landfilling.

Why did people promote recycling so heavily in the first place? Lots of people probably misunderstood the costs and benefits. Its also true that eco-activists urgently wanted everybody to feel a direct stake in saving the planet. Telling us all to recycle was their way to make us feel eco-involved.

Today, however, when environmental concern is near-universal and conservation techniques are far better, we dont need phony recycling campaigns.

I received a stern warning from Waste Management recently that I was breaking the law by placing my recyclable trash in plastic bags (which are recyclable). Seems I could be subjected to a $300 fine if I don't knock it off.

They were kind enough to mail a pamphlet describing exactly what I should be doing with my soup cans and soda bottles (as if I have the time or inclination to scrape the damn wrappers off the soup cans, wash out the soda bottles, remove the plastic wrapper, lid and ring from the bottle...and on and on and on).

A couple of years ago, a business that I was acquainted with started the big office paper recycling program (which continues to this day). It made everyone feel good that they were, in some way, 'helping the environment'.

One day while taking an air-break near the loading dock (While some people take smoke break, I take air breaks to help stay awake at work), the recycling truck pulls up and started to load the discarded and sorted office paper.

I asked him what they do with it, and he replied that he takes it to the same place the other trucks do - the landfill, where it is mixed with 'normal' trash with large spike-wheeled front end loaders.

Curious, I asked, then why does your company provide recycling services if you are not recycling stuff? His answer: "We make more money on 'recycling' service that regular trash service."

My question being, if you are placing the stuff in plastic bags, who is opening up your bags of garbage and going through them? And why? Personally, I don't have time to recycle, so I don't. In the trash it all goes.

I quit recycling after noticing on several separate occasions that they just sent a separate trash truck around later into which the bins were dumped. Everything from here goes directly in the trash bin now.

geeze, next thing you know, they might even consider trees to be a crop. You know, something that grows, gets harvested and then replanted? You know, the original renewable resource for almost all your needs.

My question being, if you are placing the stuff in plastic bags, who is opening up your bags of garbage and going through them?

I am putting them in the bin provided by Waste Management and the township I live in. They just want everything in the bins to be loose and scrubbed before they have to touch it with gloves to throw it in the truck. It's a dainty little business, I guess.

They were kind enough to mail a pamphlet describing exactly what I should be doing with my soup cans and soda bottles (as if I have the time or inclination to scrape the damn wrappers off the soup cans, wash out the soda bottles, remove the plastic wrapper, lid and ring from the bottle...and on and on and on).

In my municipality I pay $10 a month to have the trash picked up, so I'll be clintoned if I am going to pre-process the modell for them.

I also happen to know how they treated the at-one-time second largest aluminum recycling site in North America (my previous employer) when it was located there. Another reason not to cooperate.

Where paper is concerned, most paper comes from trees which are grown as a crop. Therefore, "saving trees" by using it sparingly or recycling it is like "saving corn plants" by not eating corn....or recycling it from.....never mind.

But glass was sterilized and reused umpteen times. Then somebody got the bright idea to dump the costs on the public and use "disposeable" plastic bottles, which takes years, if ever, to deteriorate. Note that the shift to plastic didn't equal a drop in price.

Same with paper bags - they rotted after a while. They gave jobs to people who logged the scrub pine and the forest was renewable. Now we suck up oil to make these bags, which like the above, never decay. (I still make a point to ask for paper in the stores, especially now that they have handles, which was the only "improvement" I found in plastic.)

The article sounds like a promo for the "use once and throw it away" crowd. That being said, I never could see the sort-your-garbage routine as it was pretty obvious that it was neither environmentally friendly or cost effective and was merely another duck-the-consequences gambit by the corporations.

AND these phony recycling programs has us paying $2.00+ a month for our planet! Sheech!!

Bingo! Remember: When something worth something people pay you, you don't pay them, i.e. you don't pay someone to take your 2002 Dodge Ram 2500, they pay you, but you do pay someone to haul away your old washing machine that just went kaput.

27
posted on 12/29/2003 10:31:29 AM PST
by yankeedame
("Oh, I can take it but I'd much rather dish it out.")

In the old days, a pile of garbage at the dump would be set afire, and everything combustible would be burned away, while the oxidation of the metals would be well-begun. Then, the non-combustible metals (which will eventually degrade) were buried. Glass was sent back to glass factories as early as the 1920's to be recycled again and again, into insulation, fabrics, and more glass items, and aluminum, copper and brass were recycled. Large items of iron or steel were shipped back to steel mills.

Just like the elctric car folks thinking the recharging of their batteries comes from sources that do not pollute.

I'd be interested to know what the net effect is. I know I've read it but I can't remember the answer. It might also be pointed out that location of the pollution and how it is released are conciderations.

38
posted on 12/29/2003 10:42:57 AM PST
by Protagoras
(When they asked me what I thought of freedom in America,,, I said I thought it would be a good idea.)

When my parents were kids, recycling went something like this: Dig the vegetables. Cook and eat the edible parts. Feed the other stuff (peelings, roots, tops, etc.) to pigs, goats and cows and reap the rewards. If you had something in a glass container, the container would either be reused indefinitely, or broken and buried away from the house. Steel cans and tin items were reused over and over. when they finally outlived their usefulness, they were flattened and used to patch holes in outhose walls or burned repeatedly until they disintegrated to the point where the barrel of ashes (everybody used a 55-gallon drum to burn trash) was taken to the garden and spread on the soil. Occasionally, a ketchup bottle or a little blue Vicks jar was saved for a flower vase. Even though rubbish was generated (although in a much smaller way) recycling was being utilized on a very local and personal basis for many years.

We are provided a separate, large container for all recyclables: paper, plastic, glass all goes into the same bin. I wash out the food cans, jars, etc. so as to not attract local critters. As I am using the water to wash out the cans, I always wonder which has more of an effect on the environment: the little bit of metal or glass that I am contributing to the recycling effort, or the little bit of water used for washing it out that would otherwise not be used.

The trash company says I don't have to wash out the individual items, but that I should keep the bin itself clean. Brilliant. So, which takes more water: rinsing out individual cans and bottles, or scrubbing out a large trash bin with ripened goo and encrusted gook?

Actually, tonight we're just saying to hell with it and will burn the Christmas paper, boxes, etc. in the patio fire pit. It won't all fit into the trash bins, and the trash company now won't take anything that will not fit into the provided bins. I'm not leaving the trash stacked around MY house!

40
posted on 12/29/2003 10:43:57 AM PST
by RightField
(The older you get . . . the older "old" is !)

I had a very similar experience while working as a contractor at Microsoft. Most of the Birkenstockers there dutifully sort their trash, including in the cafeterias. It was hilarious to see these folks scrape and sort, and pontificate over any who shirked their civic duty, only to see the garbageman dump it all into the same hold of their trucks.

41
posted on 12/29/2003 10:44:17 AM PST
by rockrr
("Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get me")

In this town they must have thousands of special home based bins, three dozen of dozen specialized collection trucks and more than a hundred union protected jobs all dedicated to the retrieval of aluminum, glass, steel, paper and plastic. The apparent waste is simply amazing. If nothing but aluminum is kept, all the public has to do is place his waste in to clear plastic bags and scavengers will pick it up with pleasure.

Hell, some people get out before the break of dawn on collection days just to riffle through the recycle bins for aluminum cans.

Our county and city had to pass laws making it illegal for people to drive buy and pick up the recycs with deposits.

We take the bottle and cans with deposits to our church for the Heifer program. A member takes the cans to a recycle center, collects the money and turns it over to our assistant priest. Then money is deposited in a Heifer account. When enough money is raised we buy cattle, sheep, goats and even llamas for people in third world countries.

There still is a market for the grass and tree clippings. There is a separate garbage truck for them. The rest of the recycles are thrown in the same truck. They extract the botttles and cans and compact the rest and send it to Utah, I believe.

Apparently there is no market for used newsprint, office paper and cardboard. People spend a lot of money, time and effort to separate these items. Then it ends up compacted together and sent to another state to become deposited with the other garbage.

This whole game has made millionaires out of the gargage people, the watermelons and the lawyers.

44
posted on 12/29/2003 10:54:44 AM PST
by Grampa Dave
(Kaddaffi, "I will do whatever the Americans want because I saw what happened in Iraq. ")

"I had a very similar experience while working as a contractor at Microsoft. Most of the Birkenstockers there dutifully sort their trash, including in the cafeterias. It was hilarious to see these folks scrape and sort, and pontificate over any who shirked their civic duty, only to see the garbageman dump it all into the same hold of their trucks."

My wife is an office nurse for a family practice group in a good size medical building. The local Nazis have fined the group in the past for not separating their garbage.

So now one of the Doctors, a watermelon, has become the Complex's Garbage Nazi. His office has a corner view of the garbage storgage area with all of the marked and defined bins. He watches all day and then makes periodical visits to physically inspect the individual dumpers which are different colors and marked for specific garbage.

It doesn't matter. All of the garbage goes into one or two trucks, it is compacted together and the drivers drive to their next stops to put more garbage in the same trucks.

45
posted on 12/29/2003 11:01:45 AM PST
by Grampa Dave
(Kaddaffi, "I will do whatever the Americans want because I saw what happened in Iraq. ")

I compost what I can, not for the environment but for my lasagna (no-till) garden beds. Rather than doing the back-breaking work of removing sod and tilling earth, I just lay about 10 sheets of dampened newspaper right on top of the grass, and layer used coffee grounds (obtained in bulk from Starbucks -- they will give used coffee grounds to anyone who asks), shredded leaves, grass clippings, horse manure, and produce scraps. I always top the bed with shredded leaves for attractiveness sake.

You can either plant in it right away or wait a few months and let it decompose. You end up with incredibly rich garden soil for very little work.

He is called the Garbage Nazi even by those on his staff, and The Garbage Nazi and a few more colorful adjectives and adverbs by those who don't work for him.

One very independent Doctor came in on his day off and shot video of all the garbage going into the same truck or two trucks with no sorting. When the Garbage Nazi threatened to fine him and his staff, the good doctor sent him a copy of the reality video with a note "My lawyer wants to tangle with your lawyer! Make his day and try to fine me!"

48
posted on 12/29/2003 11:15:17 AM PST
by Grampa Dave
(Kaddaffi, "I will do whatever the Americans want because I saw what happened in Iraq. ")

I have fought recycling for 20 years--my neighbors, my wife, anyone who wanders into my firing zone. First of all, every three months or so, a news story breaks about how some trash hauler responsible for picking up and delivering recylcables...is just dumping them into the regular landfill. In other words, he gets a premium to treat special garbage just like regular garbage--till he's caught. Meantime, everyone who recycles gets to feel all special because they're saving the planet. Gimme a break: crushing my Pepsi cans saves the planet? People are simpletons, aren't they? This is the biggest greenie victory of our era, and it's a total lie.

The second argument is: If you want to be enviro-friendly, bury all of it. Because it takes more time, energy and resources to recycle a container than it does just bury the damn thing.

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